For our 2 year wedding anniversary, we decided to take a day trip to the capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana. I’m sure you’re already asking yourself, how the heck do you pronounce the name of the city? Well, we were wondering the same thing and had to look it up. The correct way to pronounce the name of the city is “lyoo-BLYAH-nah”. It’s pretty simple once you know to pronounce the J’s as Y’s.

When in Rovinj, we didn’t realize Slovenia was so close to Croatia. Ljubljana was also a city that was unknown to us but after visiting it, we feel that it is an underrated city that should be visited if you have the time.

The bus from Rovinj, Croatia to Ljubljana, Slovenia takes about 4 1/2 hours. We took an early AM bus ride and were met with a bus full of young Outlook Festival kids who looked like they’ve pulled an all nighter and reeked of booze. It made us realize how old we’ve become since we were so disgusted and annoyed sitting nearby their group.

Crossing the border from Croatia to Slovenia by bus was very different compared to our experience crossing the border from Chile to Argentina. The border patrol officers from each country boarded the bus and checked our passports one by one instead of having the entire group of passengers leave the bus and walk to the office like in South America. In addition, no luggage and baggage checks were performed so we passed the border fairly quickly.

[pi_wiloke_quote quote=”Croatian bus travel tip: Based off our experience, some bus routes do not stop for restroom breaks so make sure to limit the amount of liquids you consume while on board during your trip. Our trip took about 4 and 1/2 hours and we didn’t stop for a restroom break once and there was no restroom on board. By the time we arrived, we had to do a mad dash to the closest restroom” author=”Two Peas Travel Tip”]

The city of Ljubljana surprised us as it was a very clean and historic looking city. We stopped by the famous Dragon Bridge to take our touristy photos next to the statues that guard the bridge

While we were at the bridge, there were a group of school kids who looked like they were on a field trip touring the city.

We decided to follow where they were going as we figured they were hitting up all the main sites in town. It paid off as we were able to see some great landmarks such as the The Cathedral of San Nicola and the Central Market.

[foogallery id=”3129″]

We only had a limited amount of time in Ljubljana so what better way to see the city than by taking a food tour, which displays both the popular sights and landmarks plus gives us the opportunity to taste all the different types of local dishes Slovenia had to offer.

The tour group was very small consisting only of us and another couple from Boston who were celebrating their honeymoon. We visited 5 restaurants.

Octopus salad with deer carpacio

Carniola sausage with horse radish/mustard , cabbage with pork rinds, and smashed potatoes

Bujta Repa – a dense soup with turnip, onions, millet, garlic, and pork

Žlikrofi – Slovene ravioli (dumplings) filled with potatoes with a side of mushroom sauce

Slovene dessert Prekmurska gibanica – a layered cake that contains poppy seeds, walnuts, apples, raisins and ricotta filling

Food tours are fun because it gives you the chance to converse with a local who also gives you their opinions on things in their country and also their views on America. A topic that was fun to chat about with our guide Danijel (remember, pronounce the J’s as Y’s!) was about sports, as Slovenia is very into basketball and hockey, so some of the professional athletes that were discussed included Vlade Divac and Sasha Vujacic.

Our guide also explained that construction in Ljubljana always takes a really long time since they seem to always uncover Roman ruins.  The couple that was on the tour with us mentioned that there were some ruins just discovered right in front of their hotel!

Floors that had just recently been finished after a long Roman ruins excavation

While walking around to each restaurant, we encountered some interesting graffiti within the city where most of the tagging was done in English.  I would describe it as pleasant and cute graffiti.

Perfectly pleasant graffiti appropriate for our anniversary celebration

[foogallery id=”3123″]

We would have liked to have spent more time in Ljubljana. It was a last minute decision to check it out and we’re glad that we were able to experience it for a day. The food was really good and the city was very charming. Our guide, Djaniel of Ljubljana Food Tour, was also really funny and nice which made our experience memorable.  He even sent us a description of the different dishes we tried during our tour. If you have the time, it’s worth a visit!